An interview with Parker Palmer I listened to on Speaking of Faith about the spiritual aspects of the economic crisis feels relevant. My brain is too fried at the moment to write this cohesively so here are some thought fragments:

Parker Palmer : we’re at one of those interesting points in history where self-interest and idealism converge.

I do feel like evolution is trying to happen in our world now. Question is: which way is the evolution going to go?

Parker Palmer: It seems to me that one of the commonest features of human life is what I sometimes call secrets hidden in plain sight, things we know but don’t want to know and thus find systematic ways of evading or ignoring or denying. And I suppose the fundamental answer as to why we do that is that if we knew these things we would have to change our lives, and we don’t want to change our lives.

This is the huge, huge, huge lesson I learned last year. I am blind. So blind. I have made an effort to be aware all my life — and I am still blind. It’s shocking how blind I am. Everyone is blind. The only difference among us is our degree of blindness.

Parker Palmer: Violence is done when we simply don’t care or don’t look hard enough to evoke our caring for another. So for me, living a nonviolent life means, first of all, doing what’s within my reach so that every day in every way in every relationship I have, I’m trying to ask the question how is it that I am called tohonor the identity and integrity of this person? Whether that’s a person less powerful than I am or a person more powerful than I am. Sometimes that’s as simple as being called to listen to this person’s story.

Relevant to “seeking the inner nobility and beauty of all human beings.” Knowing how blind I am, how blind we all are, has made me much more patient with myself and with others. Miles to go before I’m Mother Theresa, but still… it is much easier for me to be patient and forgiving of another’s behavior (and my own) when I attribute the behavior to blindness rather than some terrible character fault or negative motive.

You can listen to (or download) the interview here. I found his comparisons of the economic crisis and inner life really fascinating. (External reality is just a metaphor.) There’s also a transcript.

Tilt-shift is a photographic technique where the camera is manipulated so that a life-sized subject looks like a miniature-scale model.

Tilt-shift photos here.

Like the photos, events in my life  can be made “big” or “small” depending on the lens I use.

K’s intention to be more “Outside of Thinking Mind” resonated with me. I’m one who has acted as though there is always an intellectual resolution to every issue. All I have to do is think hard enough, I tell myself, and the answers will come to  me. Although “thinking about it” works for me in some aspects of my life, I can often end up over-thinking and getting all twisted up in my own thoughts.

Recent brain research “has shown that people do indeed make optimal decisions—but only when their unconscious brain makes the choice.” (via Science Daily)  Similarly, psychological research has  “found that people struggling to make complex decisions did best when they were distracted and were not able to think consciously about the choice at all.” (via New York Times)

We’ve all experienced times when a solution to a problem comes to us in our sleep, we find lost car keys when we stop looking for them, or brilliant creative ideas arrive in the shower. Not thinking about it works.

So why am I so reluctant to get Outside of Thinking Mind?